A rainbow baby is a baby who is born to parents after they have had a miscarriage, experienced a stillbirth or lost a child in infancy, says Tracey Minella, who blogs for Long Island IVF.
"The rainbow is the beautiful thing that comes after the horrific storm, and all the darkness associated with loss," Minella says. "The new birth brings joy."
Being pregnant with a rainbow baby isn't easy as parents hope for a healthy child, says Kara Hanson Micucci, who lost a baby just shy of the third trimester and went on to have another daughter, who is now 2.
"The path to a rainbow baby is very anxiety-provoking and scary," says Micucci, who is also a licensed psychologist. "When the results are not what you were expecting, going into it the second time you focus more on what could go wrong. It's very stressful for most women."
October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, a day when families honour the baby they lost.
"It's very hard to have it as if they didn't exist in the first place," Minella says. "My understanding is that people want to talk about that child."
Micucci agrees that the lost baby was precious as is the rainbow baby. "Some people recognise it more openly, some people recognise it more privately," Micucci says.
There's a growing movement that suggests marking the day at 7pm by lighting a candle in remembrance of that life, Minella says.
"Then they can feel when they're lighting that candle that there's sort of a global similar effort going on at the same time," she says.